New Releases
New Releases
Photo by Allyson Riggs, courtesy of A24.
Photo courtesy of A24.
SHOWING UP
Movie directed by Kelly Reichardt
A24, 2022
Available via streaming services
In Kelly Reichardt’s new film Showing Up, sculptor Lizzy (Michelle Williams) prepares for an upcoming show while balancing interruptions from her job, her negligent landlord, and her difficult family. Reichardt grounded her film in the local craft scene in Portland, Oregon, incorporating Cynthia Lahti’s richly textured figurative sculptures as Lizzy’s work. Lahti tutored Williams in ceramics during production and created greenware duplicates of her work for Williams to work on during filming.
YOUR BRAIN ON ART
By Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
Random House, 2023
$30
This book’s bold assertion is that, beyond inspiring thought, enhancing sensibilities, and building community, the arts “can . . . fundamentally change your day-to-day life. They can help address serious physical and mental health issues, with remarkable results. And they can both help you learn and flourish.” The art-brain nexus that does these things is termed neuroaesthetics, and Magsamen and Ross introduce the reader to it with loads of scientific evidence.
CRACKED WITH CHEVONNE ARISS
A stained-glass podcast? Absolutely. Ariss, proprietor of Rüna Glassworks in Austin, Texas, holds animated, informal conversations with artists who use colored glass in many ways, from windows to multimedia works. She and her guests talk style and influences as well as the nitty gritty of setting up and running an arts business. Mindful of the wide reach of her art form, she welcomes conservators and hobbyists to the show too.
STUDIO CERAMICS: BRITISH STUDIO POTTERY 1900 TO NOW
By Alun Graves, foreword by Tanya Harrod
Thames & Hudson, 2023
$85
This book, by a Victoria and Albert Museum curator, is both a history and a definitive reference work on how British ceramics made their radical contribution to modern art. Text that sums up the movement succinctly is followed by excellent color photos of major works, 1909–2019, in chronological order. The second half of this 400-page tome presents accounts of major makers alphabetically, from Jerome Abbo to A. and J. Young.
ROGAN GREGORY: EVENT HORIZON
By Rogan Gregory
Monacelli, 2023
$60
The curvy, blobby, bio- and geomorphic forms of design-consultant-turned-artist Gregory reflect his passion for geology, ecological systems, and evolutionary biology. His furniture and sculptural works, executed in materials ranging from wood, stone, and bronze to innovative aggregates, receive deluxe treatment here: page after lush page of images are interrupted only occasionally by short essays by experts, including his father, social historian Stanford W. Gregory, and his sister, biologist Tremaine Gregory.
